9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”21 Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”22 The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” 23 Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. Acts 10:9-23
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) Mark 7:18,19
I love the parentheses in the Mark verse. Although Mark wrote Mark (that's pretty obvious although Timothy didn't write Timothy) it's generally believed that he got most of his material from Peter. To me, the parenthetical statement is kind of saying, "Here's what Jesus taught but we didn't figure out what He meant until later. Actually, it took the sheet coming down from Heaven in a vision episode to waken me to what He was teaching us back then."
Isn't that the way it is with the Bible? We read something we don't understand so we file it away and come back to it later while we focus on the things that we do understand. Many years later after we grow in Christ and life experiences, we come across it again and we say, "Now I get what He's saying." William Craig talks about the virgin birth being a stumbling block to his salvation until he got to know God and realized that's "child play" (pun) for Him. Tim Keller struggled with the fairness of primogeniture or eldest son birthright until he saw how God was always messing with it - Jacob, Isaac, David, Judah, Ephraim, etc. There are answers for difficult questions. The problem is when we say I don't understand this one thing so I'm going to throw out Christianity. No! Don't do that! The answers are there just wait until the time comes when He'll explain it to you.
We are training brand new interns now. When you ask them how they're doing, a common response is "I feel like I'm drinking water from a fire hose." That's not how God quenches our thirst. He reveals thing to us as we can take them. No wonder Paul talks about the "milk" of the word. Babies aren't ready for meat yet. Someday, for sure, but little by little. Peter took some time to digest the meat so don't expect that you will understand everything about the Bible. It's sips at a time.
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